May salutes Brits but rewards Italy

Fiona May, the one who got away, once again showed British athletics what it missed when she took her dazzling long jump talent to Italy as she leapt to her second world title today.

But the 31-year-old, who was born in Slough, raised in Derby and once won a world junior title here in Canada in a British vest, had not forgotten her roots as she thanked the contingent of fans from the UK for cheering her to the narrowest of victories.

May, who moved to Florence, marrying an Italian pole vaulter and switching allegiance to Italy seven years ago, produced a leap of 7.02m to regain the title she won in Gothenburg six years ago by just one centimetre from Russian Tatyana Kotova.

Afterwards, May, who always complained that she was never giving enough support by the British athletics system and has since been consistently among the world's best in Italian blue, took the microphone in the stadium and said: "I would like to say thanks to all the British fans for cheering me on. I haven't forgotten about them."

It was 13 years ago that May won gold for Britain as a teenager in Sudbury, Canada, and met her husband Gianni Iapichino.

May was particularly satisfied to finish 14cm clear of Spain's Cuban-born bronze medallist Niurka Montalvo. At the last championships in Seville, she complained after taking silver that Montalvo's winning leap should have been ruled a foul.

The unlikely sound of Swiss cow bells clunked around the stadium to greet the perfectly executed 800m victory of the ever-consistent Andre Bucher, who struck ambitiously with a lonely run for home over the last 300 metres and still comfortably held off the challenge of Kenyan runner-up Wilfred Bungei to win by three metres in 1min 43.70sec.

Britain's injured 400m hope Katharine Merry was in the stands to watch a gold she believed she should have won end up in the hands of surprise winner Amy Mbacke Thiam, who began the race as Senegal's firstever woman finalist and ended it as their first-ever champion.

In a thrilling race, with three in a blanket finish, Mbacke Thiam's decisive surge over the last five metres saw her dip at the line to win in a time of 49.86secs and oust Lorraine Fenton of Jamaica and Mexico's Ana Guevara.

For Merry, the best in the world this year before she was forced to withdraw, it must have been all hugely frustrating because she has run 49.59secs this summer.